The New York Indian Film Festival Announces Full Lineup for 19th Annual Film Festival﻿

Presenting The Best Of Indian Cinema
at The 19th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (May 7-12)

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the full
lineup at the Launch event for their 19th year of celebrating Independent, art house, alternate, and
diaspora films from the Indian subcontinent at the Village East Cinemas in
the Lower East Side of Manhattan (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003). Dedicated to bringing these films to a New
York audience, the festival will feature 32 screenings (29 narrative, 3 documentary
and 32 short films), feature 7 World Premieres along with an International
Premiere and 5 US premieres and the rest of the films being NY premieres. NYIFF has always been the go-to festival to
see South Asian diaspora films that have not been seen in New York City and is
continuing with this mission for the nineteenth year.

This
year, NYIFF has the largest number of regional (non-Hindi) language films – 20
in total. The languages focused on are Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam,
Marathi, Kannada, Ladakhi, Punjabi, and Harayanavi and will all have English
subtitles. Aseem Chhabra, NYIFF Festival Director, says “We are thrilled to
share our lineup for this year. The NYIFF programming team has spent a number
of months watching, tracking films and we now present to the audience the best of Indian cinema.”

Returning to NYIFF is award-winning filmmaker, Gurinder
Chadha. The festival will be hosting a
special spotlight of Chadha’s Blinded by
the Light, which will be making its New York debut after its premiere at
the Sundance Film Festival. The film is inspired by the true story of
journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and his lifelong love for Bruce Springsteen.

Bengali Master Buddhadev Dasgupta’s Urojahaj (The Flight) will be also be a part of the special focus
on Bengali cinema that NYIFF will be presenting this year. Seven features will be a part of this
presentation, many by first time filmmakers, putting a spotlight on a
resurgence of films from West Bengal.

Arijit Singh, a widely popular Bollywood singer
will be highlighted at the festival with his second directorial venture Sa – a tribute to Satyajit Ray and Ravi
Shankar. Anoushka Shankar plays sitar for the film. Other highlights of the
festival include Assamese filmmaker, Rima Das whose last film Village Rockstars was India’s official
entry for the 2019 Oscars. His new film, Bulbul
Can Sing, will have its NY premiere at NYIFF along with Assamese master and
National Film Award Winner Jahnu Barua’s Bhoga
Khirikee (Broken Window). Short Filmmakers Ashuman Sharma (Jalebi) and Vick Krishna (Mokshi) were also in attendance at the
NYIFF Launch event on Thursday, April 18 at the Consulate General of India, New
York. They are a part of NYIFF’s four
short programs that includes a total of 32 short films.

Also announced at the NYIFF Launch, Celebrity Chef and
filmmaker Vikas Khanna was named the
Brand Ambassador of the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC). Khanna is a Michelin-star chef as well as a
cookbook author, humanitarian, filmmaker and was once voted New York City’s
hottest chef. Khanna’s The Last Color starring Neena Guptawill be the prestigious Closing Night
film for the festival and will be honoring mothers around the world on Mother’s
Day.

Tickets
to attend NYIFF are $20 CAD, and students who bring identification can purchase
tickets for $10. Opening Night, Closing Night and Day Pass rates are available
on: https://www.iaac.us/nyiff2019/schedule.htm

A complete list of
the 19thAnnual NYIFF’s features selections include (all with English
subtitles):

Bhonsle

Hindi

Dir: Devashish Makhija

NY premiere

Yours
Truly

Hindi

Dir: Sanjoy Nag

NY premiere

Sir (Opening Night film)

Hindi

Dir: Rohena Gera

NY premiere

Photograph
(Centerpiece film)

Hindi

Dir: Ritesh Batra

NY premiere

The
Last Color (Closing Night film)

Hindi

Dir: Vikas Khanna

NY premiere

Sidhustan
(doc)

English

Dir: Sapna Bhawnani

World premiere

The
Sound Man: Mangesh Desai

English/ Hindi

Dir: Subash Sahoo

NY premiere

Midnight
Delhi

Hndi

Dir: Rakesh Rawat

US premiere

Hamid

Hindi

Dir: Aijaz Khan

NY premiere

Bulbul
Can Sing

Assamese

Dir: Rima Das

NY premiere

Aamis

Assamese

Dir: Bhaskar Hazarika

Bhoga
Khirikee

Assamese

Dir: Jahnu Barua

World premiere

Chegu

Bengali

Dir: Nabamita Ghosh

US premiere

The
Flight

Bengali

Dir: Buddhadev Dasgupta

US premiere

The
Bose Family

Bengali

Dir: Suman Ghosh

International premiere

Chippa

Bengali

Dir: Syed Safdar Rahman

NY premiere

Kia
and Cosmos

Bengali

Dir: Sudipto Roy

NY premiere

Sa

Bengali

Dir: Arijit Singh

International premiere

Cat
Sticks

Bengali/ Hindi

Dir: Ronny Sen

NY premiere

Baggage

Kannada

Dir: Roopa Rao

World premiere

Good
Guy, Bad Guy (doc)

Kannada, English

Dir: Indu Krishnan

NY premiere

Chuskit

Ladakhi

Dir: Priya Ramasubban

NY premiere

Abode

Malayalam

Dir: Jaya Jose Raj

World premiere

Paani

Marathi

Dir: Adinath Kothare

World premiere

Roots

Tamil

Dir: Anand Ravichandaran

World premiere

Kattumaram

Tamil

Dir: Swarnavel Eswaran

World premiere

Shivaranjani
and Two Other Women

Tamil

Dir: Vasanth Sai

NY premiere

K.D.
(a) Karuppa Durai

Tamil

Dir: Madhumita Sundararaman

US premiere

Draupadi
Unleashed

English

Dir: Tony Stopperan

NY premiere

Salute

Punjabi

Dir: Harish Arora

NY premiere

Blinded By The Light

English

Dir: Gurinder Chadha

NY premiere

Jhalki

Hindi

Dir: Barahmanand Singh

NY premiere

About
NYIFF

The
New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious
film festival screening premieres of feature, documentary and short films made
from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the Independent, arthouse,
alternate and diaspora genres. Seven days of screenings, post-screening
discussions, industry panels, award ceremony, special events, nightly
networking parties, red carpet galas, media attention and packed audiences
build an awareness of Indian cinema, entertain & educate North Americans
about the real India, and add to the amazing cultural diversity of New York
City. For more information, please visit the website HERE.

About
IAAC

The IAAC
supports all the artistic disciplines in classical, fusion, folk and innovative
forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues
around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a
network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to help
artists and art organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists
from India to exhibit, perform and produce their work here. The IAAC is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable
by law.